When playing a non-electronic game, for example, a card game such as bridge, with one or more other people, the social interaction and verbal sparring that arises during the game typically adds much to the enjoyment of the players. The verbal communication is also an element of game play, since comments made by a player to an opponent during a game can cause the opponent to lose concentration and perform poorly, while comments made to team members can provide encouragement, thereby promoting their quality of play. Communication between persons playing games is thus clearly an important element of the gaming experience.
The verbal repartee between players that is so important to game play was missing when players first began to play electronic games over the Internet and other network links. Players at different sites were generally not able to communicate with each other, because their personal computers (PCs) only communicated data related to the play of a game over the network. The loss of the verbal social interaction that is so much a part of game play when players are all in the same room caused play of games over the Internet to be less interesting. To address this problem, hardware and software solutions were developed that support voice communications between PCs over the network during game play. At about the same time, the techniques were developed to convey voice over the Internet or other networks (i.e., voice over IP) to enable communications between parties connected by the network without incurring the cost of conventional telephone long distance calls. This work resulted in the creation of various protocols supporting voice over IP communication, including the H.323 specification, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and Media Gateway Control Protocol/Media Gateway Controller (MGCP/MEGACO). Much of the functionality and techniques of voice over IP is applicable to and has been used in schemes to enable verbal communications over a network between players of PC electronic games. Examples of systems that provide voice communication between connected PCs during game play include Microsoft Corporation's SIDE WINDER GAME VOICE™, Mindmaker, Inc.'s GAME COMMANDER 2™ device and software, TEAMSOUND™ software, GameSpy Industries' ROGER WILCO software, and Alienware Technology's FIRST CONACT software. The voice communication provided by these products greatly adds to the enjoyment of playing games on PCs that are connected over the Internet or other networks. Some of these systems operate in peer-to-peer mode, in which voice data are transferred over the network directly between PCs, while others require a voice server that receives the voice data from one game player computer and forwards the data over the network to one or more other computers connected to the network for playing the game.
In contrast to a PC game system in which only one player is supported on each PC, a multiplayer game console supports a plurality of players on each console. Voice communication systems have been developed for game consoles that enable verbal communications between a plurality of players who are playing a game. The verbal communication can be between players on the same game console or between players on different game consoles that are coupled in communication, either directly or over a network, such as the Internet.
While verbal communication during game play is generally a desirable feature, if abused or misused by a specific player, it may become bothersome to one or more other players in a game. The cause of the annoyance to a player may be the repeated use of profanity or sexually explicit language by the specific player, or may simply be language or comments that a player feels to be socially unacceptable. Since each player has an individual reaction to certain verbal behavior, the causes for a player to be annoyed by the verbal communication with a specific player are virtually unlimited. Nevertheless, it will be important to enable any player who becomes annoyed with the verbal communication of a specific player to prevent further verbal communications with that specific other player. The prior art does not enable a player to block verbal communication with an annoying player in a specific game played on a multiplayer game console, or to generally block an annoying player from talking or listening to the player during any game played on multiplayer game consoles.
Control of verbal communication with selected other players might be implemented by game software, to permit the control to extend only over a single game play session. Alternatively, the control of verbal communication might better be applied based upon player data maintained at a central site, such as an online game service service. Each time that a player logs on through a game console to play a game over the network, the data can then be accessed to determine if verbal communication by one of the players or between certain players has been precluded. The act by a player of muting verbal communications with a selected player during a game should preferably not alert the selected player of that decision, and should not adversely impact on the player's ability to communicate with other players in a game. The muting of a selected player by another player should remain in effect, regardless of changes in an alias or changes in the gaming device used by the selected player to play games over a network.
Parents may want to block their child from participating in voice communication during game play to avoid exposure to even mild profanity or verbal communication with someone who might attempt to contact the child outside the scope of game play, for harmful purposes. The parental blocking of verbal communications of a child should be stored on the online game service and should still be in effect if the childe connects from a different game console. The prior art game voice communication systems do not permit blocking verbal communications by a selected player, such as a child, participating in games using a multiplayer game console.
Another area of control of verbal communications relates to the concept of policing the behavior of players. Ideally, the reactions of other players exposed to a specific player's behavior during verbal communications while playing games on a network should be the basis for any prohibition placed on further verbal communication by that player. Should any player's verbal conduct be viewed as so egregious (based upon the number of complaints received from other players, or some other criteria) as to warrant it, an automated function on the online game service or the online game service operator should be able to prevent that player from participating in verbal communication while playing games. The ban on verbal communication by such a player might only be for a limited period of time, e.g., for a period of a week, but, if justified by continued unacceptable verbal behavior, the ban on verbal communication by the player might be made permanent. Again, the current voice communication systems do not enable this level of control to be applied to verbal communication by selected players on a multiplayer game console who are connecting to other game consoles through an online game service service.